Yes, you can view or decrypt the XML files of an Android APK file. There is a tool for reengineering 3rd party, closed, binary Android apps.

How to do this on your Windows System:

Download apktool-install-windows-* file

Download apktool-* file

Unpack both to your Windows directory

Now copy the APK file also in that directory and run the following command in your command:

prompt: apktool d HelloWorld.apk ./HelloWorld

This will create and directory “HelloWorld” in your current directory. Inside it you can find theAndroidManifest.xml file in decrypted form and you can also find other XML files inside the"HelloWorld/res/layout" directory.

Here HelloWorld.apk is your Android APK file.

See the below screen shot for more information:

Now that you’re finished. You probably want to this folder into Eclipse and Edit.

Alternatively, you can go for below UI based approach:

You want to edit apk file(android app) directly without the need of eclipse or command line build utility? Yes You can do it using APK Edit Utility.

(2) Unzip the zip file and extract its contents. Click on "APK Edit.exe".

(3) First it will ask you to choose Java Executable from "Program Files" folder. Normally it resides in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.6.0_25\bin". Folder may be different if you have different java version installed or different bits operating system.

(4) Later software will ask you to choose android apk file you want to edit. Browse the apk file you want to edit.

(3) Wait for some time until the Browse link becomes clickable in Details Tab.

(4) Now, click on browse and folder structure will be opened.

(5) You can make small changes like string name change, image change, app name change & save the file to reflect the changes in apk file.

To Change icon or images :- Replace existing images with new images.

To make string changes :- find strings.xml file in res and change the string’s values.

To make app name, package name changes :- Change the android manifest file.

After making all changes, save the file and close the folder structure. Click On Ok and you will see the android app with all the changes you made.

If you have any queries/feedback, please write it in comments section below OR mail me here : Snehal [at] Techproceed [dot] com

Much to the chagrin of its users, WhatsApp quietly introduced read receipts (letting people see exactly when a message is read, not just delivered) earlier this month. The app always showed one tick mark when you sent a message, which changed to two grey ticks when it was delivered. Now, the app shows two blue ticks when the recipient has read your message

This feature was rolled out without an update to the app itself. This means that there was no privacy setting to disable read receipts when the feature was rolled out. The lack of this basic feature in WhatsApp really ticked us off, and we had promised that we'd be back with a tutorial on how to disable WhatsApp blue ticks as soon as it was possible. True to our word, here we are now that WhatsApp has unveiled this feature for Android.

Here's how to get rid of those annoying blue ticks in WhatsApp - but if you do this, then you won't be able to see the receipts either. If you want to check when other people see your messages, then you need to allow them to see read receipts from you. For now, this is only possible for Android users, and only if you manually update the app via the WhatsApp website. WhatsApp typically releases updates first via its website, and then rolls out the update for Android's Google Play store, followed by updates for other platforms, so the update will be available for all devices soon.

The first step is to get the latest APK file from WhatsApp:

Download the latest (version 2.11.444) WhatsApp apk from the official website.

On your Android phone, go to Settings > Security > Check Unknown sources, to enable installing apps from outside Google Play. Note that the exact path to the setting can vary depending on your device manufacturer and Android version - the important thing to note is that you enable installing apps from unknown sources.

Open the apk on your Android phone. This will install the latest version of the app on your device.

Once the app is installed, here's how to disable read receipts:

Open WhatsApp and tap three vertical dots icon on the top right.

Now go to Settings > Account > Privacy.

Uncheck Read receipts.

That will disable the blue ticks on WhatsApp. As we noted above, feature isn't available on other platforms or on Google Play as yet, but now that this feature has appeared on the official WhatsApp apk, we can hope that an update will bring it to all platforms.

If you have any queries/feedback, please write it in comments section below OR mail me here: Snehal[at]Techproceed[dot]com